Photography and Censorship at APEC

It’s interesting to note that the first sentence of the World News Australia report is “Officials say police who forced three tourists to delete photos of a huge security fence erected in Sydney for the APEC summit were not over-reacting” while later in the article it says “The police action against the tourists may have been “over the top” but was necessary, said New South Wales state Transport Minister John Watkins“. So which was it? Was it “over the top” or was it “not over-reacting“.

Strangely the World News Australia web site shows a picture of the fence. If this fence is so secret then why are the pictures being published so that millions of people will see it?

For that matter why even try censoring the pictures. Censoring the pictures effectively issues a challenge to everyone who has a digital camera and plenty of spare time (which means most university students among others) to get the best photos of the fence (feel free to leave comments with the URLs for your best pics).

It seems that APEC leaders are keen on nuclear power. If they really believe that nuclear power is safe then maybe they should have their meeting at Maralinga. There would be little effort or expense required to secure Maralinga and it wouldn’t disrupt a major city. :-# But seriously if they wanted a secure location for a meeting with no protesters then an aircraft carrier would make an ideal location. The people who need to attend the meeting could get flown to a carrier that’s off-shore in the territorial waters of one of the countries concerned with a full battle group to deter any other ships from entering the area.

4 comments to Photography and Censorship at APEC

Heh, I visited Tunisia last January and it was a crime to photograph any Military or Official building. Not even the flag waving on top of them. Not even a barbed wire on the fence. It was so ridiculous I could not resist.

I am planning to go to sydney to photograph the APEC meting and its protesters and i can tel you any copper who makes me delete photos or takes my film, will be facing charges because i as an australian citizen have the right to take photos of anything in a public place or anything that can be seen from a public place, poeople and propety

As a photographer I to believe the right to photograph in a PUBLIC place is a legal right. As is the right to publish those shots on a website,the pics I have published are for public interest and are what I consider to be stock footage. Feel free to browse my website shotshttp://www.shadesofgrey.com.au/Apec.php

Bill: Thanks for the comment, and the Apec URL on your site is very interesting. I took the liberty of editing your comment to replace the original URL from the body of your comment (which is still available in the header of your comment) with the Apec.php URL which is the one that will be of most interest to readers of this page.